"Having conceived a world of spirits, whose nature and intent were unknown to him, primitive man sought to propitiate them and to enlist them in his aid. Hence to animism, which is the essence of primitive religion, was added magic, which is the soul of primitive ritual. [...] The methods by which the spirits, and later the gods, were suborned to human purposes were for the most part 'sympthetic magic' -- a desired action was suggested to the deities by a partial and imitative performance of the action by men. To make rain fall some primitive magicians poured water out upon the grounded, preferably from a tree. The Kaffirs, threatened by drought, asked a missionary to go into the fields with an opened umbrella. [...]"
Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 3, 1935
"These methods of suggestion by example were applied especially to the fertilization of the soil. Zulu medicine-men fried the genitals of a man who had died in full vigor, ground the mixture into a powder, and strewed it over the fields. Some people chose a King and Queen of the May, or a Whitsum bridegroom and bride, and married them publicly, so that the soil might take heed and flower forth. In certain localities the rite included the public consummation of the marriage, so that Nature, though she might be nothing but a dull clod, would have no excuse for misunderstanding her duty. IN Java the peasants and their wives, to ensure the fertility of the rice-fields, mated in the midst of them. For primitive men did not conceive the growth of the soil in terms of nitrogen; they thought of it -- apparently without knowing of sex in plants -- in the same terms as those whereby they interpreted the fruitfulness of woman [...]"
Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 3, 1935
"Here and there, as among the Pawnees and the Indians of Guayaquil, vegetation rites took on a less attractive form. A man -- or, in later and milder days, an animal -- was sacrificed to the earth at sowing time, so that it might be fertilized by his blood. When the harvest came it was interpreted as the resurrection of the dead man; the victim was given, before and after his death, the honors of a god; and from this origin arose, in a thousand forms, the almost universal myth of a god dying for his people, and then returning triumphantly to life. Poetry embroidered magic, and transformed it into theology. Solar myths mingled harmoniously with vegetation rites, and the legend of the god dying and reborn came to apply not only to the winter death and spring revival of the earth but to the autumnal and vernal equinoxes, and the waning and waxing of the day. For the coming of night was merely a part of this tragic drama; daily the sun-god was born and died; every sunset was a crucifixion, and every sunrise was a resurrection."
Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 3, 1935
"Human sacrifice, of which we have here but one of many varieties, seems to have been honored at some time or another by almost every people. [...] Probably it was bound up with cannibalism; men thought that the gods had tastes like their own. As religious beliefs change more slowly than other creeds, and rites change more slowly than beliefs, this divine cannibalism survived after human cannibalism disappeared. Slowly, however, evolving morals changed even religious rites; the gods imitated the increasing gentleness of their worshipers, and resigned themselves to accepting animal instead of human meat; a hind took the place of Iphigenia, and a ram was substituted for Abraham’s son."
Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 3, 1935
"Since early man believed that he acquired the powers of whatever organism he consumed, he came naturally to the conception of eating the god. In many cases he ate the flesh and drank the blood of the human god whom he had deified and fattened for the sacrifice. When, through increased continuity in the food-supply, he became more humane, he substituted images for the victim, and was content to eat these.[...]" (thinking of the Sacrament)
Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 3, 1935
"Magic begins in superstition, and ends in science. [...]"
Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 3, 1935
"[...] Frazer has shown, with the exaggeration natural to a brilliant innovator, that the glories of science have their roots in the absurdities of magic. For since magic often failed, it became of advantage to the magician to discover natural operations by which he might help supernatural forces to produce the desired event. Slowly the natural means came to predominate, even though the magician, to preserve his standing with the people, concealed these natural means as well as he could, and gave the credit to supernatural magic- much as our own people often credit natural cures to magical prescriptions and pills. In this way magic gave birth to the physician, the chemist, the metallurgist, and the astronomer.
More immediately, however, magic made the priest. Gradually, as religious rites became more numerous and complex, they outgrew the knowledge and competence of the ordinary man, and generated a special class which gave most of its time to the functions and ceremonies of religion. The priest as magician had access, through trance, inspiration or esoteric prayer, to the will of the spirits or gods, and could change that will for human purposes. Since such knowledge and skill seemed to primitive men the most valuable of all, and supernatural forces were conceived to affect man’s fate at every turn, the power of the clergy became as great as that of the state; and from the latest societies to modern times the priest has vied and alternated with the warrior in dominating and disciplining men. [...]"
Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 3, 1935
"The priest did not create religion, he merely used it, as a statesman uses the impulses and customs of mankind; religion arises not out of sacerdotal invention or chicanery, but out of the persistent wonder, fear, insecurity, hopefulness and loneliness of men. [...] If he had not existed the people would have invented him."
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